20. Griffin
TWENTY
The morning airblows through my messy hair as I step off my boat onto the dock behind The Shredder House. I spot Maliah standing at the edge of the shore with massive bedhead and smeared mascara. Her grumpy expression making me chuckle as I approach her.
“You better be making the best breakfast of my life for waking me up this early,” she mutters, handing over a change of clothes for Eliana as well as our toothbrushes.
“It’ll be the best breakfast you’ve ever had.” I chuckle.
“How is Eliana?” She yawns and wraps her arms around her body as a cool breeze passes through.
“Last night shook her up a bit but she’s okay,” I say, glancing back at the boat where Eliana still sleeps, “is Colton still here?”
She nods. “Kairi took care of him all night.”
“How’d Zale take that?” I smirk.
She shoves my shoulder gently, trying to hold back a smile that pulls at the corners of her mouth. “Zale was so drunk; I don’t think he even realized he was home when we got here.”
“Sounds like Zale,” I nod, “anyway, I better get these to her. See you in an hour or two?”
Maliah nods before running back into the house. I retreat to the boat and make my way down to the lower deck where Eliana is curled up in the bedsheets, her hair sprawled out in loose waves. She lifts her head at the sound of the door creaking and brushes her hair out of her face to look at me.
“Good morning, sunshine,” I say, smiling at her, “Koa docked the boat closer to the house last night and Maliah brought you a change of clothes and your toothbrush.”
“They are heaven-sent,” she mumbles, rubbing the sleep out of her eyes.
“Are they?” I lower myself to the bed and hover over her.
“Mhm.” She looks up at me with sultry eyes.
“What about me?”
She grins. “You’re God-like.”
I lean down and kiss her softly before she pushes me away and covers her face with the blanket.
“I have morning breath,” she exclaims, her voice muffled.
I chuckle and lay her clothes and toothbrush on my pillow beside her before I take my toothbrush and head over to the bathroom leaving her to change. As I’m brushing my teeth, mentally preparing to face Colton, Eliana walks in behind me and wraps her arms around my waist, resting her head against my back.
It”s been so long since I”ve had this type of intimacy. It had stopped with Meghan way before the accident, and I forgot just how comforting it can feel.
I spit out my toothpaste and rinse my mouth and toothbrush before I pull her around to my front. She turns around and presses her back into my front as she wets her toothbrush and spreads a layer of toothpaste on it before brushing her teeth.
“You always smell so good,” I mumble into her hair, inhaling her natural strawberry scent.
When she finishes brushing her teeth, we walk out to the dock and make our way inside. The house is silent, except for Zale’s loud snores that float down the stairs.
“Pancakes?” Eliana asks, heading for the kitchen.
“I’ve never had homemade pancakes before.” I reply, following her.
She frowns at me in confusion as she pulls out ingredients from the fridge. “Your mom or dad never made pancakes for you before?”
I shake my head and sit in a nearby stool. “They were both busy when I was a kid. My dad ran a couple businesses out of town and my mom ran a floral shop in the town square.”
“Where are they now?”
I clear my throat, shifting in my seat uncomfortably. “They’re both a few towns over.”
She raises a brow at me. “You guys don’t talk anymore or something?”
“Not really…they don’t remember me,” she blinks twice, “they had me really late into their marriage and they both were diagnosed with Alzheimer’s a few years ago.”
“I’m so sorry,” she whispers, “how old were you when they were diagnosed?”
“Seventeen. I had just joined the youth team for the Saltwater Shredders when it happened, and Gabriel took me under his wing.”
“That explains why he’s so hard on you,” she says, leaning forwards on her elbows.
“It’s also why I take disappointing him so hard. He did so much for me, and I feel like I owe him.”
She nods in understanding.
I stand up and walk around the counter to her, wrapping my arms around her waist and resting my chin on her shoulder as I watch her add the ingredients into a mixing bowl.
“I never knew the Shredders had a youth team.” She cracks an egg over the bowl.
“We used to, but not anymore. Gabriel can’t stand kids.”
“What about you?” She pulls out a whisk from the drawer and starts to mix everything together, the batter thickening.
“I like kids but coaching them was never something that had crossed my mind before the accident.”
“What about after the accident?” She pauses.
I pull away from her and busy myself with the pans, placing one on the warm stove top. “It’s crossed my mind a few times as a backup option.” I admit.
“I think you’d be amazing at it.”
“Oh yeah? Why is that?”
“You”ve been great at teaching me how to surf so far. You”re very patient and thorough.”
I don”t expect her words to mean as much as they do, but it”s nice to hear that she feels like I”ve been doing a great job so far.
She walks over to me with the bowl of pancake batter and hands it to me to hold while she greases the pan.
“I assume since you’ve never had homemade pancakes that means you’ve never flipped a pancake either?” Her eyes light up with excitement.
“Nope, never flipped a pancake.” I confirm.
“Then today is the day.” She pours out a blob of batter onto the pan and hands me the spatula. “When you see it start to bubble that means it’s time to flip it.”
We wait and watch the pan until bubbles start to form on the top of the batter. I jab the spatula underneath and toss it up, convinced the pancake will do a double flip and land perfectly in the pan. Instead, it flies all the way to the ceiling and sticks.
We both stare up at it in shock before Eliana bursts out in unrestrained laughter. I lower my gaze and watch as she clutches her stomach, eyes watering. The beautiful sound fills the room, and I watch, mesmerized. Her joy is intoxicating but most of all, addicting. I want to be the reason she laughs like that every day. She opens her shimmering eyes, and her laugh slowly dies away as she takes in my expression. I pull her towards me, closing the space between us.
“You’re so beautiful when you laugh, do you know that?” I murmur against her lips.
“I don’t, but I like hearing you say that, even if I don”t believe it.”
The admission shocks me.
She doesn’t think she’s beautiful?
I frown and pull away from her, opening my mouth to ask her why, but my question is cut short when the pancake drops from the ceiling and lands on my shoulder. Eliana bursts into laughter again and this time I join in.
“These arethe best damn pancakes I’ve ever had in my life.” My words are muffled as I chew a mouth full of Eliana’s pancakes. “Can you teach me how to make them? I wasn’t paying attention earlier.”
She laughs. “One day.”
A groan from the staircase pulls our attention as Zale walks down the stairs wearing black sunglasses. He looks like shit as he slightly hunches over and wobbles over to us.
“Please, someone stop the loud banging in my head.” He drops his head to the cold counter as he takes a seat next to me.
“You should try a pancake, they’re magical.” I point at my plate with my fork, and he makes a disgusted face.
“Unless you want to help me clean my throw up, I suggest you stop talking about food.”
He buries his face into his arms just as Koa comes down the stairs and joins us. He looks like shit but nowhere near as bad as Zale.
“You guys are so lucky I know how to steer a boat,” he grumbles, walking over to the coffee machine and preparing a fresh pot of coffee, “I would’ve crashed into the dock if I was listening to any of the pointers Maliah was trying to give me.”
“Excuse you,” Maliah says, emerging from the staircase, “If it wasn’t for my pointers, you would have crashed into the dock.”
“That’s not true,” Koa counters.
“It’s true.” She pulls out a mug from the cabinet and places it next to his.
I stop chewing and stare at them both, my eyes about to pop out of my sockets. Eliana nudges me with her elbow and when I look over to her, her expression mirrors mine.
“Did you two fuck last night?” I ask, placing my fork down next to my plate. “This is the first time in a year that I’ve seen you two have a somewhat civil conversation.”
“Nothing happened,” Maliah stares at my shoulder, “why is there pancake batter on your shirt?”
Eliana snorts beside me. “It’s a long story, but don’t think I didn’t notice you change the subject.”
I narrow my eyes at Koa who is doing an amazing job at pretending to read the nutrition facts of the coffee beans he’s holding, though his eyes aren’t moving and a small smile tugs at his lips.
“Wait, was that moaning I heard last night you two?” Zale asks, lifting his head from his arms. “I thought it was them!” He points to me and Eliana.
Maliah swings her body to face him. “Zale Evans, how dare you say that?” she shouts.
He grabs his head into his hands and groans. “Please don’t yell. If it wasn’t you two then it was them.”
He points in our direction, Eliana shifting on her feet. “It wasn’t us,” I say, “we slept on my boat last night.”
“Well, who else could it have been?” He frowns.
“Morning,” Kairi’s gentle voice says from the stairs.
Everyone looks up and watches as she descends the stairs, Colton in tow. Zale’s jaw drops before he swings his head towards us, wincing in the process from his hangover. Koa raises his brows in surprise as he watches them approach, turning to busy himself with cleaning the coffee machine.
“What the fuck,” Zale exclaims, turning back around to pin Colton with a death stare, “why are you here?”
“I brought him here,” Kairi says simply.
“Yeah, but why?”
“Why not? This was his home a few months ago.”
“But it’s not his home anymore,” Zale argues.
“It will always be his home.” Her tone is final as she walks past him with a small frown.
Zale brings his fingers to his temples and closes his eyes as he steadies his breathing. “Kairi, please tell me those moans I heard last night weren’t coming from you two.”
“That’s none of your business, Zale.”
“I think I’m going to be sick,” he mutters as his face pales.
He stands from his stool and walks back upstairs, bumping Colton’s shoulder on the way.
Colton returns his attention back to me, nodding when our eyes connect. “We should probably talk.”
I wave my fork in the air before pointing at my plate of pancakes in front of me. “Yeah whatever, after breakfast.”
I don’t want to talk to him, but after nearly watching him die last night, I realize I still care about him despite his betrayal. The least I can do is listen to what he has to say and decide what happens next between us. Kairi loads up two plates with pancakes, handing one to him before they take a seat across from us and begin eating while having their own quiet conversation.
Eliana reaches over and squeezes my thigh, offering me a comforting smile, before I return to devouring the pancakes.
Colton and I take a seat,side by side, on the sandy beach while everyone else is inside cleaning up from breakfast. He pulls his knees to his chest and rests his arms on them while staring out into the horizon. We sit silently, listening to the waves crash against nearby rocks.
“Why didn’t you just let me die?” he asks, not taking his eyes off the ocean.
“Don’t be stupid, Colton.”
“I’m serious. I’ve been a shit friend so why did you save me?”
I grind my teeth. “Just because you’ve been a shit friend doesn’t mean that you deserve to die.”
He doesn’t answer right away, the sound of the waves filling the silence again.
“I really didn’t kiss her, Griffin,” he says somberly, “I know you have no reason to believe it, but I swear on everything that I didn’t.”
He runs a hand through his unruly blond hair and lets out a shaky breath before he looks over at me, his eyes sad.
Colton has never looked like this before, he”s usually never too serious and I’ve rarely ever seen him emotional over anything. If he did intentionally make out with Meghan, I don’t think he’d care enough to fix things between us.
I look away and stare out into the ocean. “I believe you.”
He stiffens beside me, and I slide my eyes back to him. “You do?”
“She was never your type.” I press my lips together to hide the smile from my lips but when one corner of his mouth lifts, I can’t hold it back anymore.
He shoves me playfully, and I shove him back.
“Who fits my type?” He visibly relaxes, lowering his legs to the sand and leaning back on his elbows.
I laugh and lean back on my elbows too. “I see how you look at Kairi.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“I think you do.”
“It doesn’t matter,” he sighs, “she’s into Zale, not me.”
“Really?” I turn to look into his eyes. “Is that what she said when you fucked her last night?”
He groans and falls back into the sand, rubbing at his face. “It didn’t mean anything to her, it was a drunken pity fuck.”
“You and I both know that’s not true,” I say, nudging him with my knee, “everything means something to Kairi.”
He groans again, covering his eyes with his forearm.
“Did it mean something to you?” I ask.
He doesn’t answer for a long while, so long that I start to wonder if he fell asleep, but eventually he sighs and lifts his arm, his brows pulled together in a frown.
“More than it should have.”
I nod in understanding. Days ago, I felt the same about Eliana. I knew I should stay away but I couldn’t fight my growing feelings. I sit up, resting my arms on my knees before looking over my shoulder at him. No more small talk, it’s time for me to get answers.
“Why did you leave the team?”
It’s a question I’ve wanted to ask since I found out. We were both on the youth team before we switched over to the pro team and I know he sees this team like family to him. Leaving just doesn’t make sense.
“I felt responsible for your accident. I couldn’t stay in that house without you there, it was a constant reminder that I played a part in what happened to you, and I couldn’t stand it.” He releases a shaky breath and when I look over at him his eyes are shining with emotion.
“Don’t you fucking dare cry right now, Harrison,” I growl, frowning at him.
“Shut up,” he rubs his eyes, “I’m just angry with myself.”
“Don’t be, she played us both,” I clear my throat, “are you happy with the Rip Raiders?”
He scoffs. “I fucking hate it there. It’s a bunch of rich fucks fighting over who has the biggest dick.”
“So come back.”
“What?”
“Come back to our team.”
“Coach would never let me come back.” He flicks a bug crawling along the sand, frowning, “You should’ve seen how devastated he was when I told him I was leaving.”
“I think he cares too much to leave you with them if you’re unhappy there, Colton. It’s worth asking him.”
“Maybe.”